Aston Villa transfer news: Morgan Rogers Chelsea move preceded by major signing who "deserves everything he gets"

Aston Villa have confirmed the signing of Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Joao Gomes for a reported £38m.

With Youri Tielemans having signed for Manchester United and Morgan Rogers due to sign for Chelsea on Monday or Tuesday, Unai Emery was in need of a major addition.

Although Johan Manzambi has already been acquired from Freiburg, the West Midlands outfit are also seemingly keen to add Joao Palhinha to their senior ranks.

On Monday morning, the arrival of a second central midfielder was confirmed, with Gomes finalising his transfer to Villa Park.

The newest Villan in the building ? pic.twitter.com/9ph5dOFd1K
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) July 20, 2026

New Aston Villa signing Gomes "deserves everything he gets"

While a transfer fee has not been confirmed, it has been widely reported that Villa are paying £38m for a player who missed out on a move to Atletico Madrid earlier this summer.

The Brazil international will be departing Molineux with a record of eight goals and six assists from 130 appearances in all competitions.

Wolves technical director Matt Jackson told the club's official website: "Joao deserves everything he gets from the game. He’s a model professional, a lovely young man and a great family man. He’s the type of professional that coaches love and players love, so he will go on to be the outstanding player that we know he is.

"We’re obviously sorry to see him go, but we have to take responsible decisions for the football club, and then we build to be stronger collectively.

"It's a very natural part of football, the best run football clubs who don’t have unlimited resources have to work this way. The model is something that we have to adopt, and our fans have always been hugely understanding of that."

Perfect deal for all parties

Wolves would have known that Gomes would inevitably move to a bigger club at some stage of his career, and more than doubling their outlay on him represents a major success.

From Villa's perspective, they are signing the combative midfielder that they desperate need, a consequence of Amadou Onana being ruled out in the long term and Boubacar Kamara having been sidelined for over six months.

Meanwhile, at the age of 25, Gomes gets to play European football for the first time after Villa secured a return to the Champions League.